Tutorial Recording Notes:

Disclaimer: these are the actual notes I used to record this video and are written in a language you may or may not understand. Hopefully, you find them useful or cool.

New 3000×3000 doc

New solid color layer #f6fded

Add a “9” using font Sonder Black at size 2000pt

Drag in road-mountain-trees photo and position so the road lines sort of follow the stem of the “9” (LINK FOR THIS IN BIO!)

Clip a Levels layer to this image and set the inputs to 0 – 0.8 – 225

Clip a Selective Color layer to this as well and set Blacks sliders to -10, -10, -15, -5

Set the photo layer to Multiply blend mode to knock away the blown-out white sky

Shut off the “9” text layer.

Load the “9” as a selection and mask the photo within this selection

Deselect the “9”.

Select the mask and use a large, soft-edged brush to paint back in the tree top and part of the mountain on the left and generally make it look how you want.

Load in the Trees brush pack and add this tree texture to some of the edges and get rid of ALL soft edges. This is vital!

Merge all to new layer, convert to black and white and 2px High Pass and set to Overlay.

Duplicate that layer and set to Soft Light.

Add Curves layer

Add Color LUT w/ Drop Blues.3DL

Add a Selective Color layer and edit the Blacks: -2, +3, -1, -10

Add Levels layer and set the inputs to 20 – 0.95 – 255

Create a new layer beneath the masked image layer and drag out a 350px ellipse and fill with black

Blur this ellipse 30px Gaussian blur, and 500px 0º Motion blur

Transform, flatten, and drag beneath the “9”

Blur another 30px Gaussian blur and reduce to 75% opacity

Load the image mask as a selection and set the foreground color to black and add a Gradient layer and use the Foreground to Transparent gradient and drag the gradient downward to add some shading to the bottom of the “9” and then set this layer to Overlay.

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Nathaniel Dodson: I am a young web designer and commercial photographer specializing in music, business, and athlete portraiture. I am a young and energetic individual who has been working in the design and creative field since I first started dabbling with Photoshop in year 2000.